Creating History, Making Memories

The piles of scrapbook! I think at this point I have about 12+ scrapbooks starting from 1999.

I’ve always loved photographs. I remember spending hours going through the shoe boxes full of pictures my parents kept in their closet as a kid. I have been through all of the boxes many times and yet I still go back and go through them every so often. I love the memories those pictures hold.

I’ve always been somewhat of a “saver.” I’d save random items that reminded me of a day or an event in my life. I started my first journal in high school and much of that journal is filled with movie stubs, newspaper clippings and other random items. In college I made my first photo album. I still go back and look through it and remember that trip, Because I documented it all, small things I would have eventually forgotten about come back to me every time I look through the album.

I love these old photos of my parents. Most were taken before I ever came into the picture!

I'd never actually PLANNED this but it just so happen that I had a picture from my first day of college and one from my last.

I actually "borrowed" some of those pictures from my parent's shoebox! I had to put some of them in an album!

That first album wasn’t the best, but as time went on, my scrapbooking skills improved. And now, all my trips are documented. About two years ago I also started what I call my “Memory Book” after I discovered the treasures in my grandmother’s house. It’s less work than the albums and more haphazard. I stick in there anything I want to save. Anything I want to be passed on to future generations. It’s a collection of articles, ticket stubs, subway passes, receipts, and so much more. Some of the items, like the occasional delivery confirmation stub, are things we get and throw away not thinking twice about saving them. I want to save those everyday things so maybe one day 100 years from now someone will look at it and marvel at it just I did with the 1920s money order I found in my grandmother’s house. I want to document the little things (bills, post cards, business cards…). It might not be a big deal, but they tell my story, and one day my memories will be history and I’m leaving a piece of me behind for future generations.

My Memory Book: Random items, with some handwritten notes here and there to let whoever sees this years from now have a glimps of who I was.

This is one of my favorite things I saved from hig school. My tv movie ads.

Maybe one day someone will get a kick out of this card from 2000 🙂

Little by little I’m creating my own piece of history. Tell me, what do you do? What do you want to one day leave behind? What memories/history do you hope to make?

The Damsels

Jennifer, Emilie, and Tricia met while they were graduate students in Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program. They bonded over their love for children's and young adult fiction, especially all types of historical fiction, and their desire to see their books in print.